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Tapping the Gurus: What The Insiders Say SAP Customers Can Expect in 2013

by Dave Hannon

December 26, 2012

By Dave Hannon@Daveatwispubs

Over the course of the past month, we here at the Insider Learning Network have been interviewing some of the most knowledgeable SAP analysts and consultants in various areas of SAP to help you get an inside look at what to expect in 2013.

In late November our senior writer Ken Murphy interviewed Nucleus Research Vice President Rebecca Wettemann about the evolution of CRM and social collaboration. Listen to the podcast here to find out what you can expect in CRM.

Richard Hunt of Turnkey Consulting gave me his insights on what SAP GRC users can expect in 2013, including the possible role of SAP HANA in GRC and the development of some fraud management functionality SAP has referenced in 2012. Take a listen here.

Kellie Fitzpatrick of Symphony Management Consulting gave us the inside scoop on what SAP HCM users can expect to see in the new year. She discussed what areas of functionality SAP HCM users are considering putting in the cloud, which are the target areas for SuccessFactors integration, and how cost issues will drive the move to the clo
ud for SAP HCM users in 2013. Hear the full interview with Kellie here.

Who better than Dr. Berg to provide a glimpse into what SAP users can expect to see from the SAP BI and HANA perspective? He talks with our own BI guru Scott Wallask in this must-hear podcast.

In procurement, SAP users are eager to know the long-term benefits of this year's Ariba acquisition. To get the insider's perspective I interviewed SAP mentor Prashant Mendki here. While he agrees there are still a lot of question marks, Mendki says "In the short-term, SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (PI) and SAP Information Interchange OnDemand will definitely play a larger role at the technological integration level." Read more in the Q&A here.

And to get a broader supply chain perspective, I went to analyst (and former SAP employee) Bob Ferrari of Ferrari Consulting and Research Group. "In our view, supply chain organizations must embrace and augment capabilities surrounding resiliency and responsiveness in 2013," he told me in this exclusive interview, in addition to touching on the value of data and predictive decision-making in supply chain.

And last, but certainly not least, SAP Experts managing editor Scott Priest provided his own predictions, saying "For SAP, I think their focus will be less on acquisition (at least, on acquistions of the size of Ariba) and more on continuing to get their message out there. SAP will look to show more and more successful HANA implementations." Read the rest of his post here.

As always, we welcome your feedback. The Insider Learning Network is meant to be a forum for sharing ideas, opinions, and even predictions. You can post comments on any of these posts or put your own predictions up.